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A 5 fold Ministry of the Great Commission in the Last DaysWed, 29 Jul 2015 14:47:16 +0000en
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Kingdom Comehttps://fullgrownministry.wordpress.com/2013/09/10/worlds-end/
https://fullgrownministry.wordpress.com/2013/09/10/worlds-end/#respondWed, 11 Sep 2013 01:23:29 +0000http://fullgrownministry.wordpress.com/?p=498God does love. God is love, and He is the God of all love. Love comes from Him. But He does not love everything and everybody. What God loves is what He made. Which includes the way He made it. What He made it to be and how He made it to be. It is this very manner of being, and very way of being that He is inviting us back into. We were born outside of it, and had no way back. Because of a mistake made long ago by those who came before us. No way back unless He were to provide One. And He did. And He does. For all who will receive it, which includes sticking to it.

God is not sending anyone to Hell. The choice has been given by God to men, and their own choice brings salvation or damnation. That’s what you say to folks who ask how could a loving God send people to Hell. The answer is – He is not.Grace is not given so we can do whatever we want. If you find what you are doing or not doing does not line up with what He said – you have to change. You promised that you would. That’s what Repentance is, a promise to change. Much grace is needed every step of the Way. Much grace is given. Grace is for people who repent. Not so that sinners can keep on sinning. If you don’t repent, there is no grace. Just Hell.

There is a deep and abiding misunderstanding in the atmosphere of religious christianity throughout the whole earth, over the meaning of a single word in the Bible. It has caused so much confusion and misunderstanding. Perhaps a better word would be deception, as it is part of the deception in the Last Days that Jesus warned us about. He told us again and again that there would be many teachers and preachers saying what people wanted them to say.

These teachers have crafted and shaped their sermons to cater to a highly distracted and self obsessed people. Addicted to lust and allergic to God, as one Pastor put it. Assuring them that if they accept Jesus without becoming like Him, they would be saved. That their salvation is by grace alone, they don’t have to do anything but show up to church and be entertained, if and when they feel like it. They don’t have to do anything but be saved. It is exactly what they want to hear. Almost all of what is known as the church today is made up of these people.

If you want to get the results that Jesus got, you have to preach the gospel that He preached. He preached repentance and the Kingdom of God. The two are not arbitrary, repentance is the very thing required to enter the Kingdom of God, as this world is on its way out. It is all coming to an end. It is the lack of understanding of the meaning of this word that is behind the exponential rise of Humanism inside the church, for almost a century now. It is the word world, and it does not mean people. People are included in what God made, but they are not all that He made. More importantly, in his current fallen state, man is not the way God made Him. Which is why He gave us Christ. So that any who would, could return to the way God made them. Instead of the way sin made them.

The atmosphere of our planet has multiple layers, just as the ocean does. The earth has multiple layers within itself. Is it any coincidence that Greek being the most accurate language in the history of the world, has 4 words for world. Each of them different, yet complementing the others. So that when brought together they make up a whole. This is one of the reasons that God used Alexander to establish the largest empire in the known world, to spread a common language. Not since Nimrod led the rebellion against God at the tower of Babel, shortly after the flood of Noah, when God had to confuse the language, had there been a common one. That one was being used against Him, this one would be used for Him.

Aion is the first word, it’s where we get our word eon from, and it means age or fixed span of time of indefinite duration. The Hebrew word it was translated from in the Bible includes the duration being hidden or concealed. Because of course, it’s up to God how long He will give something to run its course. Timing goes with Authority. The second word is Ge which is the land as opposed to the water. Terra firma, solid ground. Every solid planet would qualify as Ge. But you would need another word entirely to refer to habitable earth, or inhabited land. And that word is Oikoumene.

So in just the first three we have a space of time needed for anything to exist in, the land itself as the thing existing within that time, and then the land being habitable so as to sustain life. But it is not until we get to the fourth word that everything comes together and is given its proper place ability and function, and that word is Kosmos. This is the main word for world used in the New Testament, including John 3:16, and is used almost 200 times. Most of them in the Gospel of John, where it is almost always referring to a system that is opposing God. It literally means the order and arrangement of things. If anyone who cares to would take the small amount of time to go back and read John chapter[s] 1, 3, or 14-17 and substitute the original Greek meaning of order and arrangement of things for the word world every time it is used, you will be shocked and amazed. You will get a revelation of God’s Truth in your spirit, and it will click. You’ll get it, you’ll understand – and everything will change.

Never again will you be blinded by this deception of Humanism crept into the church, of God loving people the way they are. That is nowhere in the Bible. Don’t believe me, go look for it yourself. God does love and God is love. But what God loves is what He made, which includes the way he made it. God does love man as partof what He made, but He does not love man or creation the way it has become through the corruption of sin. You do have to come as you are, but you cannot stay the way you are. Christ is not some remote esoteric ideal, He is what you have to become like. Everyone in Heaven will be like Him or becoming like Him on some level, before they get there.

For anyone who does not want God or doesn’t want to be with Him, well there’s only one other place to go. Don’t blame God, He isn’t sending anyone to Hell. They just didn’t take Him seriously. Well Judgement Day will change all that. It is this corrupted order and arrangement that Jesus came into. He came to destroy the old order that had been corrupted by sin and existed apart from God, and restore for those of us born in the old, what would be a new order. But is actually the order and arrangement that God has always existed in. He has invited everyone back into it, but we don’t have to come. That invitation will not go on forever, and is now at an end. If you are a Believer, then you are already in it. It’s not your job to get everybody saved, it’s your job to tell them the Truth.

In the second chapter of the Book of Daniel, a king is given a dream. When the ancient city of Babylon was the greatest city in the earth, it had a King who was the greatest king in the earth. His name was Nebuchadnezzar. For the people of Israel being held captive there, this time was known as the Babylonian Captivity. Daniel was among the captives. God, in dealing with Nebuchadnezzar, the pride of man, all kings and all kingdoms . . . gave him a dream. In the dream he saw a huge magnificent enormous statue of a man, which represented the great kingdoms and empires from Babylon (then) to the time of the Antichrist (now). The different parts made of various metals and representing different kingdoms is explained in chapter two by Daniel, as he interprets the king’s dream.

If you haven’t read it or it’s been awhile, you should go read it. Suffice it to say the empires are Babylon, Medo-Persia, Alexander and Greece, Rome, with the ten toes representing the European Union (or its rough equivalent) as it will be taken over by the Antichrist. The statue in representing the greatest and most dominant kings and kingdoms, represents all of them. As well as man in all his pride trying to rule himself instead of letting God be his King. We are now at the very end of the time that God has given men to seek Him and His will for their lives, rather than following their own. The government of men is failing and the economy of men set up by themselves to provide for themselves . . . is about to collapse. Which will send all who don’t know the Lord – running into the arms of the Antichrist.

To facilitate the rise of the Antichrist the power of the West had to decline. All that was needed on our end was a president who would not only weaken our power and shake the hand of the Antichrist – but would play his part in enabling him to rise. We’ve had one for four years, he was re-elected last year. And it wouldn’t matter who it was, all of Scripture will come to pass. Each man simply chooses which side of God’s Word he is on. The decisions we make determine the direction we take, and the direction we take determines our destiny. It’s not some great mystery.

In the dream Daniel explains that the rock cut without hands smashes the statue to pieces, completely destroying it. The rock represents the Kingdom of God, and the place on the statue the rock hits, its point of Impact . . . is the feet of the statue. Which is the time we’re in now. Jesus isn’t coming back to take sides, He’s coming back to take over. For those who don’t know Him . . . it won’t be pretty. But for you and I, and any who choose to Believe – it will be the very thing we’ve been waiting for all of our lives. The Bible calls this looking forward to His Coming as the Blessed Hope. If you love Jesus then we’re looking forward to it together. He’ll be here momentarily.

]]>https://fullgrownministry.wordpress.com/2013/09/10/worlds-end/feed/0world's endfullgrownministryComing of Christ - Return of The KingRapturehttps://fullgrownministry.wordpress.com/2013/08/29/rapture/
https://fullgrownministry.wordpress.com/2013/08/29/rapture/#commentsThu, 29 Aug 2013 18:12:46 +0000http://fullgrownministry.wordpress.com/?p=479Not since Moses was given Torah (the Law) has there been so many people who knew the Law but were so far from it. Including most who call themselves believers. They will be staying for the Tribulation. It is this distance between people and God’s Law that the Bible means when it speaks of lawlessness in the Last Days. This is the very thing causing the love of people to grow cold. The natural human affection that people have for each other has been dwindling rapidly for years. Now the last of it is about to vaporize as the Bride of Christ is taken from the earth, and the remaining believers will become offended. Not just offended at God – just offended.

The Bible speaks of perilous times in the Last Days. Two of the main things that make them perilous is that men become lovers of themselves and lovers of money. We can see this in every area of the world and in every aspect of society. Self love, which is another word for selfishness, is what makes the days dangerous. Instead of loving God and loving His people – people love themselves. All of your life decisions flow either from your love of God or your love of Self.

We’ve all heard the parable of the sower many times, but do you know what the main point of it is, what it’s all about. It’s about four different kinds of soil and their response to a Seed. The exact same Seed was put into each soil, there was no difference in the Seed. No difference at all. The difference was in the soils (which as you know) represented the human heart. Three were bad, one was good. You could tell what kind of soil it was by the way it responded to the Word.

All of human history is divided into two parts: before He came and after He came. The first time Jesus came it was as the Lamb of God to sacrifice Himself for the sins of the world and offer Grace to any who would have it. In the 2nd coming He comes as a Lion to punish the enemies of God, which are simply those who did not believe Him and those who do not keep His Word. The gospel must be preached in the Light of His 2nd coming. For almost 2000 years, it has been preached in light of the first time He came. The second will not be like the first.

Wrath is just a word that means anger. There is a wrath being poured out on the earth right now in the form of the curse, and the Bible talks about it at length. It came about because of the fall of man. Most people live in it, but all believers are delivered from it as long as they stay in God’s Blessing, by obeying His Word. Wrath in this first sense is not something God has to put on people. It’s simply what happens outside of His Blessing. When a believer sins he steps into the curse, the gale of God’s Wrath that the rest of the world lives in all the time. When you stop obeying you exit the Blessing. People don’t like that, but they need to read the Bible. It is filled with many promises and great blessings. Every one of them are conditional. Every single one.

Now there is also a Day of Wrath which will come upon every one who has not believed God or kept His commandments, which occurs after the Tribulation at the return of Christ. The Bible calls it a literal day many times throughout Scripture, so there’s no reason to think otherwise. But one thing I want to make as clear as I can, is that the Day of God’s Wrath is not for believers. Even if it occurs during the tribulation it will not happen to believers who go through the tribulation. The wrath of God in that sense is one of the things that all believers everywhere are delivered from. There is one more wrath I’ll get to in a minute. Though many Christians will be going through the Tribulation, not one will go through the Day of wrath.

Those who preach pre tribulation combine the two in an attempt to justify their argument that believers will not be going through the Tribulation. In other words, they know the Bible says we’re saved from the wrath to come, so they just say the Tribulation is the wrath, so we don’t have to go through it. The Bible doesn’t say that – they say that. I taught post tribulation for the first 20 years of my ministry, that believers will be going through the Tribulation. But that’s not completely correct either. The truth is – they’re both right. In that, there will be followers of Christ taken out before the Tribulation, and there will be followers of Christ going through it. But the Scripture makes it clear that no believer will be going through the wrath of God. Some things are made very clear in just a few Scriptures, others can be only partially seen even when you look at all of Scripture.

Some translations use the word trouble or distress in place of tribulation, but what it is is a time of testing. It will be a trial for everyone who lives on the earth. We say trial by fire, which is actually from the Bible. Well, this is trial by tribulation. The Bible tells us that Jesus learned obedience through the things He suffered. This time of trouble will separate all those who say they believe in God from those who really do believe in God. Because the ones who end up staying and really do believe are going to have to hold on – tight. It’s going to get rough, everywhere. The Lord himself tells us that there have never been days of difficulty like these days in the history of the world, and there never will be again.

In 70 A.D. when both the Temple and Jerusalem were destroyed, not even a generation after Jesus had prophesied it – more than a million Jews died during the destruction. No fewer than 600,000 who had died of famine within the walls, were counted by the Romans as their corpses were thrown out the gates. The surrounding valleys were filled with their bodies, like so much earth. Of the survivors 97,000 were sold as slaves at paltry prices; 40,000 of which were freed because nobody bought them.

The commanding general Titus groaned and threw up his arms in horror and called God to witness that he was not responsible. He was the eldest son of the then emporer Vespasian, and it had never been their plan to destroy the Temple. The sacking of which funded the completion of the Roman Colosseum. It would seem one man’s destruction is another man’s entertainment. Titus refused to accept a wreath of victory, as he said that he had not won the victory on his own, but had been the vehicle through which their God had manifested his wrath against His people. These days of tribulation will be worse than those days. You won’t want to be here. But then, you don’t have to be.

The thing that will separate those who leave with Jesus for the Marriage Supper of The Lamb and those who stay for the Tribulation and a second chance to get it right is – how much they actually followed Christ. How much they meant it. Many have become believers with the exact same intention of some wayward young men choosing between jail time or the military – that of avoiding prison. Well Hell is a spiritual prison. God does not consider it some great act of love to choose Him over going to prison. Yet for millions of Christians, that’s as far as their intention on being Christian went. Many will make it to Heaven, but they will not be the Bride of Christ. The true ecclesia is the Bride, and only the Bride makes it out before the tribulation.

Parables are allegorical, which simply means there is a hidden meaning within them. None of the Disciples spoke in parables, only Jesus did. Which is completely acceptable as He is His Father’s Son, and in them He is speaking of His Father’s Kingdom. Which is so much bigger and brighter than anything we can understand in our current state with all of its limitations. Thank God it is said in such a way that we can get it – if we want to. If you don’t want to get Him, well then what He is saying is hidden from you. God’s Truth is hidden like this all throughout Scripture. But it is not hidden from us who Believe, it is hidden for us.

In the parable of the wise and foolish virgins who were waiting for the groom to show up, 5 went with the groom to the marriage supper and 5 were left behind. In this one, the virgins of course represented believers who were keeping themselves pure. A virgin is someone who is sexually pure. It did not say the 5 who were left were not virgins, or that they were not waiting. It said they were not ready. The difference between those who went and those who stayed was that the ones who went were ready when the Master showed up. They were prepared to wait by having their vessels filled with the oil needed to keep their Light shining. Well the Bible says that the world and all its ways are darkness, that all Christians are called to be a Light and that we need the oil of the Holy Spirit to be a light. On a daily basis.

To know what the Lord is looking for when He returns you have to go back to what He preached. Jesus preached two things during His entire ministry on earth. He preached Repentance and Kingdom. Repentance means to turn completely around, to change the way you think and act. Well most who call themselves Christians have not done that, but they want to get in The Kingdom anyway. Well a kingdom is not some enchanted mystical idea where you can come and go in what and how you please. It’s not a democracy. It is the dominion of the king. Kingdom is the realm in which the King’s will is being done.

Well God created the entire Universe, but His will is not being done everywhere. All of us need to change the way we think and act to enter His Kingdom. Many have changed, but most have not. Do you know why there is no crime or poverty or cancer in Heaven. Because God’s will is being done there. Heaven is a part of His Kingdom, but it is not all of it. So when you see a will being done that is other than God’s will, all you need to know is that is not part of His Kingdom. The fallen nature hates the simplicity of spiritual truth because it takes away all the hiding places.

Why will so many people from all over the world be following the Antichrist in the days to come. The more Ignorant you are of the Bible, the easier you are to fool. In the spirit realm you are always yielding to what you’re not resisting – and resisting whatever you’re not yielding to. So that you are always doing both at the same time, to different things. As a result of the fall we have a divided nature, and you must choose which one to side with. Your life is a result of the choices you’ve made. It’s no mystery why some will be going with the Lord before the tribulation and some will be staying to go through it.

Choosing is an act of the will, and your will is part of your soul. If you line your soul up with your body, that’s being carnally minded and it leads to death. If you line your soul up with your spirit, that’s being spiritually minded and leads to life and peace. There is no neutral plane where you’re not doing this. Inside ourselves, we are always moving closer to God or moving further away, but we are never standing still. That’s why coming to Him daily, and throughout the day is so important. Those who come to Him daily are the ones who overcome.

The coming Rapture is not for believers – it is for the Overcomers. Those who believed God enough, and proved it by obeying Him enough, to overcome the obstacles in their own personal life that were blocking them from entering in to this highest level of promise and reward. Those who are ready for Him to come. These are the ones who meant it. Those for whom Faith was not some vague idea, but a lifestyle of learning to trust Him while keeping the expectancy of His return alive. It has always been wide open to anybody and everybody who wants to get in on it.

Don’t believe me, Jesus himself says it again and again in Revelation chapters 2 thru 4, at the end of the letter to each of the 7 Ecclesia. He who overcomes, to him who overcomes, to him who overcomes. In chapter 3 verse 10, He speaks of keeping those people who stuck to keeping His Word – from the hour of trial that will come upon the whole earth to Test everyone who lives on the earth. Which simply echoes and is a reference to what He said in Luke 21:36. While warning all believers to stay alert and be ready for His return He speaks of the trial that is coming to the whole world, and tells how to get out of it. In doing so He foretells of the rapture. Avoiding this coming trial is only possible for those who judge themselves and keep free of the anxieties pressures and carnality of the world and of this life. He tells anyone who wants to know how they can escape. It is the only one offered.

That is the cost here and now for not going through the trouble then. Going through the trouble now of putting your Flesh down, dying to your fallen nature. The crucifying of Self with all its demands and desires. These are the Overcomers. Jesus commanded it. But most have not done it. There is a suffering in following Christ at the highest levels of faith and obedience, but it’s not from cancer or poverty. God does not have those things. The suffering is in not getting your way, not living for yourself. Jesus said if we tried to save our life in this world we would lose the life He has for each of us in Eternity. But if we would lose our life in this world by pursuing Him and the life He has for us, we would save the life that He has for us in eternity. Remember that the Lamb’s Book of Life is something that names are taken out of, not added to. When this all started every name was already in the Book of Life.

We already know from the Word that many will be offended in the Last Days, and that even the love of the great body of believers will grow cold. The nature of man loves religion but it will not be made godly, it denies that you can be. That’s why the earth is filled with billions of religious people, but so few who know God. You have to have the help of the Holy Spirit just to want to be made like Christ, then you need more of that same help to become like Him.

The only people who Do what Jesus says are those who believe He is real. Not those who feel He is real, those who believe. Do the people you spend the most time with love God. Do they know His Word. If we are commanded to live by Faith do you know any who do – do you hang around them. Govern the amount of time that you spend with people or groups of people according to how much you want to be like them. The consequences will be eternal.

]]>https://fullgrownministry.wordpress.com/2013/08/29/rapture/feed/4RapturefullgrownministryDestruction of Jerusalem by Ercole de' RobertiAlexanderhttps://fullgrownministry.wordpress.com/2013/08/16/alexander/
https://fullgrownministry.wordpress.com/2013/08/16/alexander/#commentsFri, 16 Aug 2013 20:59:42 +0000http://fullgrownministry.wordpress.com/?p=460It was Aristotle who taught Alexander to be the man you want to seem to others. I like to think of our own attempts to do this as the ideal man. We are told in Josephus that the Lord himself spoke to Alexander in a dream while he was in Macedonia, at Dios. He was considering how he “might obtain the dominion of Asia” – when God told Alexander that He would go with his army and give him “the dominion over the Persians.” It was because of this vision from God that Alexander believed with all of his heart, that he told his most senior general [Parmenion] “I believe that I bring this army under the divine conduct.”

When he arrived at the outskirts of Jerusalem after the long and difficult siege of Tyre, the High Priest along with all the Jewish people turned out to meet him, dressed in their Sunday best (as we would say in the West). It was this very High Priest who had spoke to Alexander in his dream, telling him that God would be with him and his army – that now showed him where he himself was spoken of in the book of Daniel, which had been written more than two centuries earlier while Daniel was a captive in Babylon. Which was the very city where Alexander would die in 323 B.C.

It must have been one of the greatest twilight zone moments in history when it’s greatest conquerer reads about himself [in Jerusalem], from a book in the Bible. Written by a Prophet from Jerusalem, while he had been a captive in Babylon – more than 200 years before Alexander would die there. If that makes your head spin, let me tell you that all things are connected in ways and at levels we don’t even know. I’m just telling you the tiny little bit that I know. It was no accident or coincidence that one of Alexander’s boyhood friends and one of his most trusted generals [Ptolemy], and later his son [Ptolemy Philadelphus] would give us the Greek translation of the Hebrew Tanakh, which is the Old Testament of the Christian Bible.

Among ancient historians there are the credible and highly reliable, and there are the less credible and unreliable. Just as there are with journalists and writers of non fiction today. You can read the Journal of Applied Nutrition, or you can read the National Enquirer. They both offer cures. One is highly reliable, the other is unreliable. To say it kindly. When writing about a person from antiquity, the ancient sources are all you have to go on. There are 6 for Alexander. They range from Josephus and Arrian on the highly reliable end, to Quintus Curtius Rufus, whose florid style and tendency toward exaggeration, have made him less reliable in much, and unreliable in some.

The relatively few secular historians and classicists who know that Josephus’ voluminous writings contain accounts of Alexander and other notables from history – cannot stand the fact that a former pharisee and priest in Israel wrote such things. Nearly two thousand years ago. He is too difficult for them to overcome. So they just deny him, or ignore him completely. Every Christian should be at least aware that his writings exist. For any who love the truth the rule of Scripture applies well here: We look at Scripture in the light of other Scripture.

Below is an abriged version of a letter that I wrote to a fellow Minister about 10 years ago, after I had heard him say so many erroneous things about Alexander during a sermon he gave at a church I was attending – that I had to answer him. He is a mighty man of God, and well known in our circles, especially for his work in Russia. At the time, he had a church in Moscow across from the Kremlin. He’s also a Greek Scholar [language not literature]. When I saw him next and spoke to Him about the letter, he told me he had read it. I gave him a copy of the book I had recommended. I know it helped him, and I’m sure he doesn’t say those things anymore. Brother Rick Joyner in one of his visions speaks of seeing a world conquerer in Heaven, whom he was very surprised to see. I’m certain it was Alexander.

– If you’ll permit me brother, in line with being both accurate and correct while pursuing the more excellent way – allow me to say something about Alexander, as he is one of my favorite subjects. I’ve read 5 different biographies on him, and I don’t read bio’s. Two from the ancient sources (Plutarch , and Arrian). Two from men of this century (Peter Greene and Ulrich Wilken), and the only one written by a woman. Which is far and away the best of them all, ‘The Nature of Alexander’ by Mary Renault .

Women seem to have more intuition than men, and certainly more grace. If you consider the sentiment in Athens at the time of Alexander’s death among the philosophers who decided both it (it was both anti Alexander and anti Macedonian) and the history of the man whom they despised and hated – that would be passed down to the rest of us. It is no wonder that it would take a woman’s hand to piece together some of the wreckage of a destroyed reputation. The destruction began even before his death and it’s chief architects were Demosthenes (the main mouth in Athens at the time) and Cassander. The latter of which was the son of Antipater, who was Regent in Macedon for Alexander while he was off conquering the world, as he had been for his father Philip before him, and for his son Alexander IV after him. Before Cassander murdered the boy, his mother, and Alexander’s mother Olympias.

I’m not sure what you’ve read, or perhaps you’ve just heard some things – but I would definitely make people quote their sources, because I assure you brother, we don’t have a record anywhere of Alexander being in a bar (if they had such things). Let alone dying from a wound he got in one. We really don’t know exactly what he died from but all of the evidence suggests pleurisy, from a wound to the lung by an arrow in battle – which almost killed him at the time (3 years earlier).

You may be referring to the tale of him draining a “cup of Heracles” at a party held for him by his friend Medius and the supposed sharp cry of pain that followed (since it was poisoned). Let me simply say that two noted, solid, trustworthy historians of their day (Plutarch and Arrian) who lived much closer to Alexander’s time than anybody of the nearly two millennia that have followed – both dismiss the tale as absurd, and in fact only mention it to dismiss it. It’s also important to remember that Arrian, having been a revered and well rewarded general under Hadrian, was writing as a fellow soldier and had all the primary source material available to him (in the as yet unburned libraries).

He chose as his sources Ptolemy, Aristobulus and Nearchus – all of whom knew Alexander in life. Two of them having grown up with him since boyhood. Ptolemy had already established both himself and his dynasty in Egypt for 20 years after Alexander’s death before writing his History, and was completely lacking in motive to tell anything but the truth. Being a King now himself and living in a world that was still filled with plenty of veterans of their campaigns together who could refute anything other than testimony, and would. As any Macedonian could freely approach the King and tell him exactly what he thought.

We’re talking about a guy who named one town after his horse and another after his dog, who gave lavishly to everybody, who inspired lifelong loyalty and rewarded it. He knew thousands of his men by their first names and had personally saved many of their lives as well as payed off many of their debts with his own money. He restored many conquered rulers to their former place (under him of course), and tolerated to live many who he knew hated him and wanted him dead – both in Athens and in his own camp. When he could have easily had them killed, and nobody would have said anything. But he did not. Not the least of which were Demosthenes in Athens and Cassander in Macedon.

War brings horrible things as a matter of course and there are those who are better and worse among the one’s who wage it, and I have no doubt he was an arrogant bastard (actually a virtue in ancient Greece). But I have to tell you I have heard more preachers talk smack about this man and attack his character than any other person of antiquity. Always with a different death, after living a horrible life drawn from some perverted image of the drunken, orientalized, lecherous despot. These images were passed down to us by men like Theophrastus, professor of science at the Lyceum, who proclaimed that alcoholism had made Alexander’s semen watery. Even though he hadn’t laid eyes on Alexander in 15 years. Alexander had only been to Athens once in his entire life, when he was 18. Wine was what everybody drank, especially on campaign, as the water was often toxic or sickening. The loss of life to disease and bad water was much greater than that in all the battles put together. He actually drank much less than most of his comrades and had to be persuaded to attend many gatherings.

Pursuing deification was standard fare for a ruler from before Egypt to the fall of Rome. His father Philip had sought it before him, but was assassinated by an offended ex-lover (Pausanias), who just happened to be the Captain of his Bodyguard. The Egyptians hailed Alexander as a deliverer (he didn’t even have to fight them) and it is they who made him Pharaoh and called him son of Ra and son of Ammon, making him a god. He didn’t have to ask anybody for it. Even when he journeyed to the Oracle at Siwah to consult Ammon about his future he was already a god. Though from this time on his sense of destiny acquired a daimonic force. Interestingly, Dake says in his notes on Daniel that the Prince of Grecia is the spirit (now in the abyss) that caused Alexander to have such success and will be released in the last days to give the Antichrist his initial victories. One of the few places where Biblical and secular history speaking of something spiritual actually shake hands.

I’ll end with this. Arrian says of Alexander that unlike other Kings, he repented when he knew he had done wrong. Though most secular historians believe that Xenophon’s Cyrus was the model for Alexander, I know it was David. He was the closest any warrior King outside the Covenant had ever come to being like David. Several things he did were exact copies of those David did. I’ve found so many parallels over my years of studying Alexander that I’ve often thought of writing a book about it, ‘David and Alexander’ is what I’d call it. I’ve written a book already ‘Confessions of a God Hater’ (the Lord told me to call it that) , but it’s not published yet. I guess I want you to know brother that I’ve never read anything even slightly indicating that Alexander was a wicked man, or even a bad one.

All that I’ve seen shows him to be a good man, a great King and a brilliant general, still greatly honored and revered today. He simply didn’t know God. But of course nobody else at that time did either. Even the Jews who God was busy trying to reveal himself to, were busy disobeying everything He said. I have read a fair amount by men who seemed to me jealous of him, and others who made the historical nonsequitur of judging him by the standards of their day instead of those of his own. It’s also worth remembering that one of his boyhood friends and most trusted generals, Ptolemy, was the man responsible for the Hebrew Bible being translated into Greek giving us the Septuagint. His son (Ptolemy Philadelphus) finished the project.

When Alexander became King of Macedon at a little past 20 years old, all that he had inherited from his father were a few gold and silver cups, less than 60 talents in the treasury and debts of 500 that he owed. Upon borrowing 800 more, he gave away everything he had to friends and loyal supporters. Some would take nothing from him. The man who would become his second in command, Perdiccas, asked him “What are you keeping for yourself?” “Hope,” said Alexander, to which Perdiccas replied “That I’ll share.”

I hope that he’s in Heaven. And although it would be cool for you to be sitting next to him at the Marriage Supper asking him to pass you the mashed potatoes, and he looks you in the eye smiling as he does, causing you to turn a slightly spiritual shade of red . . . what I’d really like is for you to give the man a break – and read the book I’ve suggested. Don’t go asking some Greek Classicist what he thinks about him, ask a Macedonian one. The Greeks today aren’t any fonder of their northern cousins than they were back then. If you want to know about Canada don’t ask someone from the United States, ask a Canadian. –

]]>https://fullgrownministry.wordpress.com/2013/08/16/alexander/feed/2Pergamon head of AlexanderfullgrownministryIdentityhttps://fullgrownministry.wordpress.com/2013/08/09/identity/
https://fullgrownministry.wordpress.com/2013/08/09/identity/#commentsFri, 09 Aug 2013 22:36:38 +0000http://fullgrownministry.wordpress.com/?p=440Men praise you when you do well for yourself. God does not. The highest praise we can hear from the Master is, “Well done good and faithful servant.” Being a good servant and being faithful at being a good servant is what pleases Him. It is the prerequisite to becoming a son. Which is what He is really looking for. Jesus is no respecter of persons. What that means is; He never ministered to people in line with who they thought they were or who they said they were, He only ministered in line with who God said they were. He did this with all people at all times.

He spoke to them in line with who they were according to the Word of God, not according to who they were in their own society or culture, or any particular status they may have within it. It is so important to be clear on this or we’ll see everything the wrong way, the world’s way. We are to minister the same way Jesus did. He was and is our example. This world and everything about it is on its way out. We must not Identify with any of it, we are forbidden to. Every thing you can see is the result of a mistake.

It began 6000 years ago in the Garden of Eden with the fall of man, when Adam and Eve sinned against God by following the words of the Devil – instead of keeping the Words of God. They were not led out of Paradise and God’s Blessing by something they saw or felt – they were led out by something they heard. The one who spoke to them back then is still speaking to men now. The current world and its ways are his kingdom, and he speaks through every facet of it.

So hear me friend. You must make your Election sure right now, before it’s all over. The Bible commands it. Nobody else can do it. It is done only by ensuring that what you Believe lines up with what the Word actually says. Lest the Devil own you body and soul through the good that you thought you were doing. Doing good has value only if it’s done in relation to God. None of us will be rewarded for what we did, we’ll only be rewarded for what we did right.

In our modernity it is often thought that having great wealth makes you a great man, that doing good makes you good, or that heroic deeds makes you a Hero. Nothing could be further from the Truth. Scripture says just the opposite. Only God is good, only God is great. We completely Ignore the goodness of God when we make such claims about ourselves. None of us are good because we say so. He is the only source of all goodness. God will not love any of us because we are good, our goodness comes from Him. God will make us good because He loves us. And all of that is done, in Christ.

It is not our fault that we were born this way. It is entirely our fault if we stay this way. We have been trained all of our lives to think like this, to give credit and place to the wrong things. It is part of our Identity. We are commanded to change it, or die in our sin. Which ends in Hell. Here comes some more change, you ready. Great wealth does not make you great. There is no amount of money that could make a man Great. Money does not make anyone great.

Society and culture say that it does, and the fallen nature agrees, but that thought is a Lie. I said it’s a Lie. Just thinking that way shows how much the world system worships money. It is good to do good things, brag on the good things in your life. But doing good things does not make you good, and most of your bragging should be on God. He is the one who makes people good. He’s the only one who can. Worship God! He’s the only One that’s worthy of it – and He owns all the money. All the goodness that exists comes from Him. We are talking about the God who makes Planets.

Let me straighten you out a little bit more, by tearing at one of the former altars in my own life. Thank God for our military. I come from a military family. Myself and two of my brothers, my dad and his two brothers all served faithfully. But our military is not why we win battles. Honor the firemen and school teachers, respect the police and our judges, be grateful. But they are not why we are safe and prosperous and have so much knowledge. Every good thing in our life comes from God – every good thing. We live ina society that refuses to acknowledge God. It’s not even remotely okay that we think this way.

Nobody is getting to Heaven based on who they were here in this life, or who their father was, nobody. What you did here on earth has nothing to do with where you go when your life down here is over. As someone who was a Navy Diver for many years I can tell you that there are thousands of Navy Divers in Hell – thousands. Many thousands of them are former SEAL team members, which are part of the Navy Divers. Most of the heroes and commanders of heroes from every country for millennia are there, because most people are there.

There are billions of people in Hell – billions! Most of them are what you and I would call good people. Being good or bad has nothing to do with getting to Heaven, nothing. Nobody can work their way to Heaven. It is a free gift from God and can be received only one way – by Faith. Who you put your faith in has a lot to do with who you Identify with. Your true identity should only and always be in Christ. Your whole purpose for being here is to go back to God. If you are a Christian for any other reason you are missing the whole point.

Let me tell you something that will shock the religion right out of you. God has given every man a gift, an ability, a talent, something – to glorify Him. Every man has something. If you did not use what God gave you for His glory – you are His enemy. If the greatest thing you have ever done in your life was not done in relation to what God did through the life of Christ – there is no greatness in the great thing you’ve done. It was done out of your love for something else, but it wasn’t done out of your love for Him. Which is expressed through obedience to His Word.

We know where the bones and tombs of many famous kings and “great” warriors are at, some going back 2000 years and more. All over the world this is true. But you cannot find the bones of Jesus Christ anywhere in the earth. Why couldn’t they find His body in the grave. Because He is in His body, right now. You just cannot see it yet, but you will. To insist that God explain it to you, that He win your understanding, that He press for your agreement, that you approve of His Plan before you Believe it – is absolutely Faithless. And it is impossible to please Him without Faith. There will not be a single person in Heaven that does not please Him. Not one. If you are in Christ, He is pleased with you. Stay in Christ, and He will still be pleased with you – when He shows up.

Every eye will see, every tongue will confess, every knee will bow. It’s good to bow now. Every person who has ever lived will see Him. Whether that will be good or bad depends entirely upon the source of their goodness. Are you good because of what you have to say about your Self, or are you good and faithful because He says so. What God has to say about every man is the only thing that will matter on Judgment Day. What any man has to say during his short life on God’s green earth has any value at all, only as it relates to God and who He is. What do you have to say about God right now. His mercy to us was time, and now the time is up.

]]>https://fullgrownministry.wordpress.com/2013/08/09/identity/feed/3tank silhouettefullgrownministryEOD Mobile Unit 7 / L - R - EMCS (DV) Mullins, PO1, EM2 (DV) Greg Mullins, MM2 (DV) Tom Schat, CWO4 (EOD/DV) Bill JacheCovethttps://fullgrownministry.wordpress.com/2013/08/04/covet/
https://fullgrownministry.wordpress.com/2013/08/04/covet/#commentsSun, 04 Aug 2013 23:17:01 +0000http://fullgrownministry.wordpress.com/?p=428The shoes do not make the man, the car doesn’t make the man, and your house does not define you. People of the world say those things, but they are not true. They think like that because they don’t believe God. So they Covet. God makes the man! It is true that you should make an effort to look and be your best. God wants us to pursue excellence – in everything. But if you are Led by what you see – you are an Unbeliever. If you’ve gotta have the big house or the new car before you give God the Glory, then you are Discontent. Just because someone has a lot of stuff doesn’t mean they have an important life.

So many people have lived their lives in pursuit of something they thought they had to have, that they couldn’t even taste the good life they were already living. They ran so fast to get where they were going, they missed all the lovely and amazing that was right in front of them. God put it there to be enjoyed. When we covet, we sin with ourself and we sin inside ourself. So that in one sense, nobody else can see it, because it is in our inner man. Covetousness is the greedy desire to Get. Anything. The question should never be about what I want. Instead, we should ask ourselves ‘if I am truly in Christ, can I rejoice right here. Can I be thankful to God no matter where I’m at, no matter what’s going on in my life, regardless of circumstances.’ That’s the real test, and it’s a life long one.

The difficulties don’t begin when your ship comes in. You have to pass a lot of tests just to get your ship to come in. It starts right here, right now. Right where you’re at. A refusal to pass the test or to even take it isn’t actually an option – it’s just the terrorist of your fallen nature showing. It insists that I get my way before I praise God. As though I can blackmail the Creator of the universe by being self centered and unthankful – until I get mine. It is the way of all flesh, but it doesn’t have to be your way. You don’t have to be carnally minded. You can keep your mind on spiritual things. Things like contentment.

Contentment is something more than just putting up with where you’re at, or refusing to complain about what you have. Contentment means I know my Redeemer lives! He is my Provider, and He will take care of me, and until everything He has for me shows up – these things [right here] don’t move me. You and I will have to hold fast to this position all of our life. My desires do not define me – His Word does. All of my circumstances good or bad, are not in any way sufficient for me. He is my Sufficiency! He is the over and above, more than enough God. Not just for the future, for right now.

The right now is where we get to practice believing that. Instead of believing what we see or feel, because we need a lot of practice. Here is the very place of my death to Self, and the birth of my becoming a Son. Dead to Self – alive to Christ, remember. A true Son is content, not with where he’s at – but in who the Father is. Part of God’s provision through what Christ did on the Cross is contentment, and it is for us right now. Godliness with contentment is great gain. If you can’t be content right now before you get the big house and nice car, you won’t be content after. Jesus said a man’s life does not consist of the things he possesses.

Money is a form of Power, but it’s the lowest form of power in the earth. It is not important to God – He owns all the silver and the gold. But He knows it’s important to us. In a sense it is just a symbol, but it’s got our energy and effort, our blood sweat and tears wrapped up in it. Which is what makes it precious to us, and therefore makes it precious to God. If you desire something it’s because you Value it. You have a level of respect and reverence for anything you desire. Because desire is related to worship. It is in fact worship on a lower level. God is the one who gave us desires and He wants us to have them. If we take our proper place as sons – our deepest desire will be for Him.

This highest reverence we possess is the thing we’re supposed to have for God, the thing we’re supposed to give Him. Left to ourselves we don’t give it to Him. Because even though it is in us – it’s not in us for Him. That heart posture came with the Fall, and like all other corruption – must be changed into the Image of His dear Son. Covetousness is that greedy desire to get, which is what we do have instead of a strong desire for Him. You just may not recognize it until you’re in the middle of it, or it’s in the middle of you. Anything you desire intensely is something you Covet.

The Bible does not say not to covet absolutely, it says not to covet certain things. It actually tells us to Covet the Lord and His Things. What we have to realize is that wecovet. All that remains is to shift our Covetousness from the world of men to the things of God. It will take a lifetime. The greater the reverence we have for the Holy Spirit, the more we desire Him, the more He will show up in our meetings and in our lives. Ask the Lord to help you reverence Him, to want Him more than you do already. Make it your Prayer that He causes your strongest desires, your deepest longing . . . to all be for Him.

There is a strong similarity in praying to a statue and caring more about money and stuff than you do about God. The Bible calls it Idolatry. Covetousness is Idolatry. That means you have something in the place that only God should have. What so many fail to realize is that everything down here is like a gallon of milk – it has an expiration date on it. It’s only good for a little while to do something with. If you don’t do something with it in the short time you have it, it won’t matter. Your having had it will have meant nothing. Don’t stockpile things or money – put them to use. Use them to get people for the Kingdom. How much you had of anything won’t even be known in the next life. What you did with it will be known, by everybody. And it will be known forever. Don’t just be rich in this world – be rich in God.

This is not the only life we are going to have. We must get over the lie that if I don’t find satisfaction in this life, if I don’t make myself happy – I will never be fulfilled. I won’t get another chance, so I have to do it now. It’s a Lie. Did you notice the Bible doesn’t spend a lot of time or space talking about our happiness, or our being happy. You can obey the Bible and be happy. Although obedience is much more important than happiness, especially for the life to come. As it is the very thing required on our part, to make it to the next life. Which is the only Life . . that matters.

Christ is supposed to be our Life. There are many beautiful homes and lovely neighborhoods but the very best place in the world to live – is in the Will of God. Do not build your life on the level of credit cards, automobiles and houses. Don’t. The physical realm is the lowest level to build your life on – and it is all going away. In the world that’s coming there is a Highway called Holiness, and there will not be a single boat plane car or truck on it. We will travel on it, all of us. And only the Redeemed can travel it. You and I will be there. You’ll be in your glorified body and you’ll like it. It’ll be Good. In just a few days it won’t matter how much money you made, what you owned, or how important you were. All that will matter is . . . do you love Jesus.

]]>https://fullgrownministry.wordpress.com/2013/08/04/covet/feed/2Super-yacht-Phoenicia-II-conceptfullgrownministryNo Anxious Thoughthttps://fullgrownministry.wordpress.com/2013/07/29/no-anxious-thought/
https://fullgrownministry.wordpress.com/2013/07/29/no-anxious-thought/#respondMon, 29 Jul 2013 23:04:31 +0000http://fullgrownministry.wordpress.com/?p=416What is it that the god of this world blinds [in people]. The Bible tells us. Lucifer blinds their minds. How does he do it. Through their own Unbelief. How does that come. Through words and thoughts. That’s how spiritual warfare is waged. If we are transformed by the renewing of our Mind – then how are we Conformed to the world. By our thoughts and what we think on.

There are so many thoughts in the world that are not from God. If you think these ungodly thoughts they will conform you to the ungodly world. Some thoughts are dangerous. Our bodies are not built to handle all the stress and anxiety of this world. In fact, we are commanded to take no Anxious thought. Anxiety and stress are killers. Anxious thoughts will come, but you don’t have to take them.

We were raised in a godless world system, and it affects the way we think whether we want it to or not. Our whole mindset has been conformed to an ungodly way of thinking. After doing it long enough, you think it’s normal. You don’t even notice it cause everybody’s doing it. Well it’s not normal.Your emotions are not You, they are a part of you. Yet so many followers of Christ follow their emotions much more than they follow Christ. This is unacceptable.

Reason and Logic do not explain Existence and Meaning. God requires us to live by Faith – which is the opposite of all that. If you let the Devil pull you over into the area of reason within the realm of thought, he will confuse you trip you up tie you down and defeat you every time. Reason is his realm. He has been at this a long time, and is better at his game than you are at yours. Because you’re not supposed to be playing his game – you are supposed to put on Christ, to get in the Spirit. Which takes you and your decision making out of the realm of your mind will and emotions.

Now if you’ll keep him in the arena of Faith, there’s very little he can do. Faith limits his access to you and Faith limits his ability in your life. Greatly. But there are two things you have to remember about Faith. Getting in it at the start of your day, and staying in it throughout your day. Your faith isn’t in the weather, it’s not in your money or your feelings – your faith is in God.

When the Devil comes at you, it’s almost always to Deceive you in some form or fashion. We know he is the father of lies, the Bible says so. But he’s not going to tell you that he’s telling a Lie right up front. That would stop most people from believing him. What he’ll do is come in a way that seems right. That way you’ll fall for it, almost every time. He keeps most people bound this way. Usually through some type of Deception or some kind of Fear. Anxiety is a type of Worry which is a fruit of Fear.

We are taught by our society that if you care then you worry, that it’s right to worry. Scripture speaks to us about a way that seems right to a man, but it ends only in Destruction. Don’t confuse seeming right in your head with seeming right in your spirit. It’s not the seeming itself that is important – but where the seeming is at. Going by how anything seems in your head is still being head led. No son of God is head led, they are all Spirit led. Don’t give into Fear, it is a tool of the Devil.

As believers we should always be aware of what we’re projecting to others by our visible example. I’m not talking about pleasing them or faking it, but reflecting God’s Light. We should always be filled with the Spirit or getting back in the Spirit which always brings Joy and Peace with it. We enter into God’s presence through Faith not through Feelings. His presence on us is visible.

People can see it, even if they don’t know what it is. They can tell there’s something different about you because you Believe. The peace of God is tangible, you can sense the joy of the Lord. If you’re not at peace and filled with joy, then you shouldn’t be projecting that by your visible example. You don’t belong to yourself, you belong to Christ.

A large part of who God is and what God is is what He thinks, and how He thinks. We have the distinct privilege of having a Book filled with God’s thoughts. You can make them your thoughts. You can fill yourself with them now. When you think God’s thoughts after Him and don’t reject them but believe them, they actually have the power to conform you to think like Him. When you think like Him you become like Him. Set a godly example by taking no anxious thought and refusing to worry. Think God’s thoughts instead.

]]>https://fullgrownministry.wordpress.com/2013/07/29/no-anxious-thought/feed/0worryfullgrownministryOrienthttps://fullgrownministry.wordpress.com/2013/07/08/orient/
https://fullgrownministry.wordpress.com/2013/07/08/orient/#commentsMon, 08 Jul 2013 21:11:01 +0000http://fullgrownministry.wordpress.com/?p=388Modernity is so dismissive of everything that came before it. We have learned while in it to diminish all things spiritual. The modern rise of the Intellect and the academic learning it descends from have trained us to ignore our Conscience. Stepping both over and on our spirit which is our conscience, and the inherent knowing of right and wrong built into it. Our sense of ought, knowing what we should do regardless of what we feel like doing, comes out of our conscience.

This inherent knowledge is called Morality, and in all the knowledge of all men can be traced back only to the Bible, as its first and oldest source. It is most clearly on display in true Christianity. All of which works by Faith, so that if your faith is weak your christianity will be also. Because we live in a time of great deception where so little of the real is visible anywhere, it is very easy to Fake it. Jesus warned us many times that Deceivers would come in this very day.

That’s what these other religions are, including the many cults of Christianity. They are fakes. Possessing attributes of the real, but not the substance. Similar in form, but containing none of the power. Such parallels can be found anywhere in the whole of fallen creation. The design of currency is as much art as any painting, but if it’s not Authorized by the government it claims to represent – it is Counterfeit.

The word means made in exact imitation of something valuable or important with the intention to deceive. Catholic is not another branch of Christianity, or even worse a forerunner of it, as taught by their clergy. It is not Christianity at all. Though many aspects of it look and sound similar to those who Follow Christ – they do not follow Him. They follow the pope, and they always have. They rose to power in the same era that another error was erupting from a madman in the desert.

Less than a century ago they were known as papists throughout the Christian world. Just as muslims were known as muhammadens because they follow the non profit mohammed. Allah is not another word for the God of the Bible, not even close. In their own language Allah is a corruption of Il-lah, the name of the moon god they served when they were pagans. They worshipped this pagan god for centuries before muhammad started listening to the demons behind the paganism.

In his book Slavery and Human Progress, Davis explains “the Arabs and their Muslim allies were the first people to develop a specialized, long distance slave trade from sub-Saharan Africa. They were also the first people to view blacks as suited by nature for the lowest and most degrading forms of bondage.” From 1915 – 1918 they wiped out 80% of the Armenian population (1.5 million people).

The Armenian massacre in Turkey was both a prototype and forerunner of the Nazi attempt at Jewish extermination some 30 years later. During the 80’s and 90’s Muslims in North Sudan were selling Black Christians into slavery. In 1990 it was believed that Mauritania had as many as 400,000 slaves. In every area of the world where they are a significant part of the population – they are at war.

Don’t you believe all the Lies these religions tell about themselves. Judge the validity of all things by what the Bible says – as what the Bible says will judge all things on Judgment Day. Islam is a religion of War, literally. The word Islam means submission. A muslim is one who submits. It has been enlarged almost entirely through conquest. Still evident today in the battles raging across India, the Philippines, and Indonesia. The last of which is the most populous muslim nation on earth. Two thirds of the world’s poorest people live in muslim countries. You can go to any nation on earth and see how Blessed they are by the god they serve.

How very odd that the God who created the earth and everything in it really does require submission, but He insists that you submit your self. Not some other Self. Everything that God does the Devil does a perversion of, a counterfeit. Can you see what’s been twisted here. In Islam, they do all the submitting for your self – they make your self submit to themselves. It wasn’t the West that chose a place of preeminence for himself among his brothers of all the tribes of the earth – The Blessing does that. The Blessing of Abraham.

God does determine times and boundaries as they relate to authority, and the Bible says so. But much of what happens to any nation, and all of what He has for any individual is accessed or blocked by our own choices. Our response to what He has already said and done. It is His Plan and Provision for each of us that is predetermined, not our choices. Our very ability to choose good or evil, to help or to harm, to draw near Him or to stay away, is one of the things that makes us most like Him. It’s called free will, and science doesn’t even attempt to explain it without looking very foolish.

Any nation that gets under God’s Authority as ordained by Him in the earth, can get in on The Blessing. Go back and read about this blessing that God put on Abraham in the covenant He made with him. Paul explains at length how to get in on it in the New Covenant. Which is open to everyone . . . who Believes. This Blessing has been going on for the last 4000 years, right in front of us – non stop.

The same is true for what Noah spoke over his sons when they came off of the Ark. All the tribes of the earth can be traced back to Noah and his three sons. Shem, one of Noah’s sons, was still alive when Abram gave him a tenth of everything he had taken in the battle of the kings, when he rescued his nephew Lot who had been kidnapped from Sodom. Abram who became Abraham wasn’t Jewish, he was a pagan himself. Neither were Adam and Eve, they are the father and mother of us all. Israel was and is just a small part of it, as most of their people carry the name Jew which is a diminutive of the name of a single tribe – Judah.

God is not playing, and this is not a game. Death means nothing to Him, and it does not come from Him. You’ll understand that clearly after you pass through it. People just don’t take what the Bible says seriously. God is not real enough, even to most believers. One of the tenets of being muslim is that you must believe in Moses, Jesus and the Bible. They don’t. Like the mormons who also claim the Bible as one of their books – their own writings have preeminence.

In all religion, all writing, all knowledge – we’re talking about where the thing that directs you comes from. And your relation to it. Your orientation, as it were. During my years in the military as a navy diver, orienteering was the practice of navigating across unfamiliar open country with a compass. Knowing which way to go becomes crucial in the life of all men. In the end, it will be the most crucial thing. That’s why the main entrance of Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem, like many pagan temples after it, faces the East. To situate the House of God in such a manner was to orient it in the proper direction.

The word orient comes from the Latin oriens which literally and originally means rising, as in where the sun rises. In the figurative and spiritual sense of course, it refers to where the Light comes from. Later, the word came to mean the east in a general sense. It was never referring to the modern people of the east, but to something God did there long ago. A love letter really. We’re still reading it today. It is the most popular book in the history of the world. After creating Adam and Eve, God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden. We are to always look toward the East, to what He did in Eden. As it is to Eden He will be bringing us back upon His return. His Word promises it.

That’s what the Millennium is all about. He’s going to show us what it would have been like if the first man and woman hadn’t messed up. We’ll be ruling and reigning with Him for a thousand years, just as a prelude of what’s to come . . . if you Believe. Even after God had banished them from Eden as a consequence of their Sin, they were banished to the East. It was more of His mercy. As all light comes from Him, being nearer the Light, they were closer to Him.

Man has been running from God ever since, but you don’t have to. You can change your direction . . . by changing your orientation. When any man no matter what his sin or background faces the correct direction, he will have the proper orientation. Face the Son. He never stopped looking at you. Not for a single moment.

]]>https://fullgrownministry.wordpress.com/2013/07/08/orient/feed/1The Snake Charmer by Jean-Leon GeromefullgrownministryWhose Imagehttps://fullgrownministry.wordpress.com/2013/06/21/whose-image/
https://fullgrownministry.wordpress.com/2013/06/21/whose-image/#commentsFri, 21 Jun 2013 22:53:39 +0000http://fullgrownministry.wordpress.com/?p=373In any society there are elements that pressure people to conform, to not rock the boat, to be like everyone else. It’s a lot like the big hydraulic presses and molds used in manufacturing. Continuous pressure is applied to a piece of metal until a car fender or part of a ship is formed. Conformed. The world and its ways shape and form us into something other than the image of God.

We are commanded not to allow that to happen to us as Believers, but to oppose it. Not by being lawless. But by following much higher laws than those of men. Being conformed to the image of Christ by following the Word of God, with the help of the Holy Spirit. No one can make you conform, you must choose to. It might cost your life, but the decision is yours. We choose to conform.

It is up to us what we let form us. The way we choose what we let form us is by choosing what we think on. The Bible says that as a man thinks in his heart is how and what he is. Not in the sense of actuality or attainment – in respect to Judgment. That’s what all things relate to, the coming Judgment. What you said you are compared to what God said you were to be.

This is no mystery, it’s all over the Bible. God has not forgotten and He was not kidding when He said that all people will be Judged. Though there are no doubt many levels to be judged on, the very first level is words. It is our words that will declare our guilt or innocence, and His Word that will Judge us. The Bible says both of these things.

Thoughts are transforming. What are words. Words are thought containers, capsules of thought. Words and thoughts are not mental or physical, they are spiritual. Jesus said my words are spirit and they are life. Your words contain more power more authority in your life than anyone’s. Including God’s. Because your free will is sovereign. God made you that way. Everything that could possibly be done to make sure every man makes it to Heaven has already been done – on God’s part. Each man must choose for himself to enter in, or not.

He will not make you surrender to Him, you must do it of your own free will. God’s thoughts are expressed and revealed in His creation. All of creation came into existence through His words. All the thoughts we have now are replaced with other thoughts. If words contain thoughts and bring these other thoughts to you. Whose words should shape and form the real you, the inside you. The one that will be Judged. The hidden man of the heart. Keep His Word, watch your words.

]]>https://fullgrownministry.wordpress.com/2013/06/21/whose-image/feed/1Stoning of StephenfullgrownministryPeacehttps://fullgrownministry.wordpress.com/2013/05/26/peace/
https://fullgrownministry.wordpress.com/2013/05/26/peace/#commentsSun, 26 May 2013 23:31:52 +0000http://fullgrownministry.wordpress.com/?p=364You can tell who is leading you by what you’re being led by. One of the strongest indicators of God’s presence ispeace. It is also one of the ways the Lord leads us. If Jesus is your Lord you don’t make decisions on your own, you involve Him. And you’re glad to do it. It might take some practice, so you better get to it. Including Him in the affairs of your life will always result in Him leading you. He will tell you what to do, if you ask Him.

If you know something is coming up, pray to the Father from your heart about it – in Jesus name. That’s how we’re told to pray. Then over the next few days check your spirit to see if you have peace inside yourself about doing it. If you don’t have peace in your spirit about doing it – don’t do it. That’s how you submit to His Lordship. Scripture says He will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Him.

To yield to means to act on the urging or the prompting of something. The assembly of believers is a Body, it’s just like a Family. We are all supposed to maintain the Unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. That’s how the Body operates. We get in the Spirit together, then peace decides what stays or what goes. This peace comes only from the Holy Spirit, not from our mind. All the input to our mind comes from this world. We can yield to the feelings and thoughts of our soul, or we can yield to the Holy Spirit and to His Peace in our spirit, but we can’t do both.

The Humanism that dominates Western Society believes itself to live in a world without God, but they are sorely mistaken. We’ve never seen a world without God. There is no Light in a world without God – for He is the Light. That’s not just a phrase it’s the Truth. There is no peace in a world without Him, for He is our peace, and all real peace comes from Him. You don’t have to imagine a world without God, one already exists. It’s called Hell. To live in a constantly terrified state is a part of simply existing in Hell, it is a place of continual panic. It is a place with no love and no peace.

There is a peace you can get from the world, but it is not the peace that comes only from God. They are as different as a hard floor on a cold night is from a soft bed full of warmth and comfort. You can manufacture the worldly peace just by getting yourself to calm down. Getting your mind on something else, listening to ethereal music, having a drink or a cigarette. But it does not penetrate, and it does not last. It’s not the same.

You are a supernatural being who can tap into the most powerful supernatural force in the universe – the help of the Holy Spirit. He will comfort you in times of distress, He’ll strengthen you in times of weakness. You can call on Him and He will help you . . . if you will. Or, you can have your own way. God’s peace passes all understanding because it is not mental, it is Spiritual. Just like the problems, all of them are spiritual. If you’re going to make it in these Last Days you have to get ahold of the only peace that penetrates, the only peace that lasts.

One of the main things the enemy comes to take away is your peace. But the peace itself never diminishes, it does not weaken. It stretches into eternity, and it is either in you or it is not. There will be times when you will have to fight off all the pressures coming at you, just to keep your peace. It is that valuable. Stay out of all the strife of this life. Worship God from the core of your being, get in the Spirit and the peace of God will guard your heart and mind. When the Bible says to let the peace of God rule in your heart, that’s what it means. Peace to you and your house.

]]>https://fullgrownministry.wordpress.com/2013/05/26/peace/feed/1PeacefullgrownministryDestinyhttps://fullgrownministry.wordpress.com/2013/05/11/destiny/
https://fullgrownministry.wordpress.com/2013/05/11/destiny/#respondSat, 11 May 2013 16:19:39 +0000http://fullgrownministry.wordpress.com/?p=354Destiny is not you deciding what you want to do with your life and leaving God to work it out. That would put you at the center and make God your servant, as though He were here to promote your agenda or bring your plan to pass. Destiny is not for you to decide, it’s for you to Discover – what God has planned for your life. And here’s the thing, if you don’t want to know, He won’t tell you. The slightest bit of Unwillingness will keep you from hearing His voice.

Even as a Christian, if you don’t believe Him, don’t trust Him, or don’t want to know – your greatest moments of clarity will seem distant and foggy. You reap what you sow, remember. God is not mocked is the first part of that verse. The way we live and act and speak mocks God. We carry on as though He doesn’t exist, or as though He’s very weak – like some senile benevolent old grandfather in Heaven, who doesn’t know what’s going on in our lives. Yet the Bible tells us that the very hairs of our head are all numbered.

Astronomers tell us that there are over one hundred billion galaxies in the universe, and that there are more than a hundred billion stars in our galaxy alone. Yet God knows the stars by name – that’s what the Scripture says! Isn’t that amazing. You know what the word Universe means? One spoken sentence. I can’t say that without smiling – Look at God! Praise His Holy Name! That’s how He did it – He speaks things into existence. Go check it out, it’s in the Bible. Everything He created in the Book of Genesis says God Said – and it was, God Said – and it was, God Said – and it was! The reason God wants you to live by Faith is because He lives by Faith. It’s the way He does things.

He considers something within Himself – then speaks it into existence, bam! We’ll just call this the Big Bam – as opposed to the other one, which they can’t explain at all. Since they have no idea why it banged, how it banged, or what it was doing before it banged – it just banged. Those paths are very intentionally avoided by the people who cannot explain their childish position, because to take one step on any of them would lead directly to design or purpose. Which can only come from some sort of Intelligence, and is just another word for . . god.

Well they didn’t and don’t want to admit that, so they got to bangin’. So there was nothing there, then it suddenly turned into something. No, it turned into everything. That takes a lot more faith than I got. God is easy to believe, and easy to believe in. The bang never made a sound, it’s nothing but a bunch of rebellious men who don’t want God to exist – having a tantrum. Don’t buy into it – there’s nothing there.

The christianity of most who believe themselves to be Christian isn’t working for them because they haven’t been Discipled. I didn’t command it, Jesus did. It is a getting up under someone who has what you don’t – so you can get it from them. If they were a vessel full of liquid, and you the empty vessel needing to be filled, then the pipeline, the conduit, the funnel connecting the 2 of you would be Obedience. Not obedience in some random arbitrary manner – but obedience to God’s Word. Discipleship is all about accountability. The accountability of keeping your word, which was given in the form of a promise, when you made that promise to Change. Which is all that Repentance is – a promise to change. You can’t do it on your own, it is quite impossible. You need help, a lot of help, and a large part of the help God has sent is Discipleship.

Everybody wants to go to Heaven, but nobody wants to change – and be made into the image of Christ. If you haven’t at least begun the process of Salvation, which is the name of this being changed – you won’t make it to Heaven. It is not accomplished with a prayer anymore than your 1st year on the job ended by filling out the paperwork to get hired, no – that was all done beforehand. If you’re in the Clergy, no use quoting sola fide – Faith is an act not a thought. And yes it very much is Faith in Christ and His completed work on the Cross, but you have a part in response to that. Most who call themselves christians have very intentionally, not done their part. Some are just ignorant due to a gross shortage of Teachers in the Body of Christ. Not because they haven’t been Called – because few have answered the Call. From Genesis to Revelation, God ties all of your Love for Him and all of your Belief in Him to one thing . . . Obedience.

Now in doing our part, God has given all of us the ability to become Hungry, Willing or Obedient – so we can be Discipled. I in fact call these the 3 doorways to Discipleship, and teach my Disciples to look for one of these doorways being open as a confirmation of who they are to disciple. I’m not an Evangelist so I don’t take my guys out to the street corner and look for followers, and I tell them not to do that because that’s not the Call, or the Anointing that backs up that Call – on my life. And in ministering the real Biblical Christianity you only want to do what you’re Anointed to do. Which means what God has given you Power to do, because He’s Called you to do it. The thing so many won’t take the time to do, is to find out what God has Called them to do. They’re too busy doing what they’ve called themselves to do, or what someone else thought was a good idea. But they never asked God what He has for them.

There are many good books and many good movies, but most of the books that have ever been written – shouldn’t have been. It’s the same with movies, songs, restaurants, even Ministry. I’d say on average probably the top ten per cent in any field are doing something God put in their heart, whether they knew it or not. Which means in every area of human endeavor most of the people in the earth, including most of the people in the church, are not doing anything God told them to do. Which is where the Blessing is at – and the only place His Blessing is at. Remember Blessing means empowered to Prosper, not claiming your own success. This real tangible power comes from Him, not from the pretend of positive confession.

If you are not empowered by Him, you are not Blessed. It’s not competition that makes room for you, it’s your Gift that makes room for you. Instead of living in His Blessing people are just doing something, anything, to keep themselves busy, so they don’t go crazy. Busy making a living so they can feed themselves and pay their bills while waiting for Death to finally catch up with them. That’s why so many people are so frustrated. Well, that’s not what God calls life. Jesus came to deliver us from all that mundane, dreary, unrewarding, unfulfilling, frustrating existence that makes up our life in our town. He’s got something much better, for everybody on the planet. He said if we’ll follow Him (if we’re willing and obedient), we’ll eat, live, drive – the Best of the Land. All the time, every day.

In fact, the greek word for His kind of Life is Zoe. The God kind of Life, the uncreated life. It’s one of the main things Christ came to do. To change us from created to begotten – from creatures to Sons. It would be like a man changing a painting or statue (something he created) into another man (something he didn’t create but could only beget). C.S. Lewis explains this in Mere Christianity – you can only beget something of your own kind.

To beget is to give birth to something of the same kind as yourself. If you’ll get up under the Authority with Anointing that God has called you to, and stay there – the Gift that’s in you will come up out of you. It will. Follow someone who’s Christianity is working for them. Until you come into Ministry, you only have as much Anointing [and Authority] as that you are submitted to. That’s why most have none – they’re not submitted to any. That’s how it works. The Gifts, your Calling, the Office of Ministry is birthed while you’re being changed under the Anointing. Apostles and Prophets birth Ministry, we see that all throughout the Scripture.

You don’t have to be under us, but you have to be submitted somewhere to a Minister with the Anointing. We’re not selling anything to anyone or trying to get any to join us, much of what we say will repel the religion right out of you – and make the half committed partially obedient undercover christian downright angry. We’re telling the whole world including the christian world that they need to get Discipled. Not because we said so – Jesus said so. He commanded it! That’s why we have links on our website to the websites of other 5 Fold Ministries that walk in the power of the Holy Spirit, that live in the miraculous. It doesn’t matter if you like them or approve of them – they have God’s Approval! Don’t be arrogant, humble yourself. You don’t give out the Anointing, you may very well not have any – but you can get some. If you’ll let God have His Way, if you’ll let Him be God. This is not a Democracy – it’s a Kingdom, remember.

Jesus doesn’t want your vote, He is not running for office. He’s not coming back to be King, He is King already! He’s just coming back. The question is is He your King. I didn’t say is He your Savior, I said is He your King. If He is then all your Issues are settled, and you just do what He says. Everybody wants to be Saved from Death and Hell and the Punishment for sin, but nobody wants to do what they’re told. Only doers of the Word get Blessed, they’re the only ones who will make it. You can be one, you can – that’s what Discipleship does – makes you a doer, not just a hearer of the Word. So he can be your King, and when He comes back, you won’t run from Him . . . you’ll run to Him. That’s the road you must go down, making Jesus your King – so God can make you a son.